Cisco Optical Automation Solution for Protected Point-to-Point Managed Optical Fiber Network

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Cisco Optical Automation Solution for Protected Point-to-Point Managed Optical Fiber Network

NCS 1001 overview

Updated: October 26, 2026

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This section explains the setup, initial configuration, and software upgrade processes for the Cisco NCS 1001 platform used as the Optical Line System (OLS) in this OAS solution.

The Cisco Network Convergence System 1001 (NCS 1001, PID NCS1001-K9) is a 1 RU DWDM Optical Line System optimized for point-to-point data-center DWDM applications. It provides amplification, section and channel protection, and OTDR-based fiber monitoring for C-band DWDM transmission of up to 96 channels over a single fiber pair.

Platform components

Each chassis hosts up to three pluggable optical modules in any combination based on the link design.

  • Optical Amplifier (NCS1K-EDFA)

  • Protection Switching Module (NCS1K-PSM)

  • Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (NCS1K-OTDR)

Platform capabilities

The platform runs Cisco IOS XR and supports these automation and management capabilities:

  • Zero Touch Provisioning

  • Streaming telemetry

  • NETCONF/YANG

  • SNMP

Passive optical components

The Cisco NCS 1001 solution includes the chassis and the NCS1K-MD-32E-CE and NCS1K-MD-32O-CE passive mux and demux patch panels. The legacy N1K-MD-32E-C passive mux and demux patch panel is also supported.

For low-channel-count edge sites, the solution can optionally include the Cisco ONS 15216 4-channel Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (OADM).

NCS 1001 hardware and software support for MOFN deployments

Use this reference to understand the Cisco NCS 1001 hardware components, slot usage, and software interfaces used in the protected point-to-point Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN) topology.

Hardware components

Cisco NCS 1001 includes these hardware components:

  • A 1 RU chassis with a removable NCS1K-CNTLR2 control card and onboard NCS1K-SSD.

  • Four removable NCS1K1-FAN fan modules.

  • Two redundant 600 W AC/DC or DC/DC power supply units. Do not mix AC and DC power supply units in the same chassis.

  • Three slots for hot-pluggable optical modules, such as NCS1K-EDFA, NCS1K-PSM, and NCS1K-OTDR.

  • Two USB 2.0 ports, a copper management port, an optical SFP management port, and an RS-232 console port.

Software Support

Use these slot and software guidelines for the MOFN deployment:

  • In amplified-only configurations, install the EDFA in any supported slot.

  • In section-protected configurations, install the protect EDFA in slot 1, the PSM in slot 2, and the working EDFA in slot 3.

  • Populate empty optical module slots with filler modules to maintain cooling and laser-safety compliance.

  • Cisco NCS 1001 runs Cisco IOS XR. The baseline release for this MOFN deployment is 25.4.1.

  • Optical modules appear as controllers in the Ots 0/<slot>/0/<port> format. Booster and preamplifier ports use ports 0 and 1, OSC uses port 2, and COM-CHECK uses port 3.

  • The platform supports management through CLI over SSH, NETCONF/YANG, gNMI streaming telemetry, and SNMPv2c or SNMPv3.